UPDATE (12/30/2008)Happy 2009 everyone!With 81,500 miles on the Stratus, I figured I'd give a brief update. On Dec. 23rd I experienced my first "major" failure on the car not covered under warranty. Back in the Spring of 2007, I had both outer tie rods replaced under my extended warranty and only paid the 100$ deductible. I wasn't too upset by this, because this car was purchased used and was a rental car in its previous life. Rentals are treated extremely poorly. The alloy wheels showed curb damage, which was evidence to me that this car's front end was probably slammed around pretty well.As for the most recent uncovered repair, I had to have the front, left wheel bearing replaced. It started to make a howling noise. Being winter, and just a few days before Christmas, I took the car in to my local Dodge dealer instead of tackling it myself. I was charged $498 for the bearing replacement, which when researched online, was actually a decent price. Other than the one wheel bearing, the car is doing pretty well. This car has lived 5 of its 6.5 years outdoors in harsh, salty Chicago winters. Therefore, I've done some minor rust touch ups underneath on the rocker panels. Those rockers take a hell of a lot of abuse from rocks and grime. Drivability is still great, minimal squeaks from the interior usually when it's very cold out. All in all, I'm still very pleased with the car. It's been my dependable companion throughout my college career. Still recommended. 

UPDATE (7/3/2006)
The stratus is still performing quite well and aging with grace. She now has 50,600 miles on the clock, and I’ve done a little maintenance to her. The brake calipers have rusted over so in the spring I sanded the rust off and painted them over with silver caliper paint. They look much cleaner now.
600 miles ago I had the 50K oil change performed. I also had the accessory and power steering belts changed since experience has shown me to never go more than 5yrs/50,000 miles with the same belts.
Also the original brake rotors are slightly warped and cannot be cut anymore so I need new ones. I won't complain about this since 50,000 miles is a pretty good life for heavily used front rotors. I'm debating over the OEM Mopar rotors for $98.00 a piece or the domestic Raybestos rotors for $40.00 a piece.
One thing I must recommend is DO NOT get cheap-@ss rotors made in any Asian country due to their cheap steel and poor heat-sinking characteristics. Always spend the extra money on the domestic made ones. This is not a goofy "buy American" campaign on my part, but from experience. My dad bought cheap $15.00 rotors for his stratus, and they were badly warped in less than a year, seriously. The cheap price is not worth the hassle. Your brakes are important and are a safety device so spend the money; not necessarily $98.00, but surely not $15.00
New tires will be purchased in the fall and I’ll be looking for good wet weather tires in the Goodyear or Michelin line; two of my favorite and very reliable tire brands.

Stay tuned for more updates.


UPDATE (9/13/2005)
Well the car will be 4 years old soon and it's still doing great. In May my roommates and I took a roadtrip to CA, and we took the Stratus. We were leaving for two weeks from Dekalb, IL and our first stop was Denver, CO. Before we left i did a transmission flush, rotated the tires and changed the oil with 7500 mile Mobile1 synthetic.
Up to Denver we had four (my friend's uncle) people in the car and each had over a week's worth of luggage. The car was able to easily swallow us and all our junk. We also brought a DC/AC converter for our three laptops.

We went from IL to CO in one day, and it was a breeze, everyone was comfortable, and the car performed flawlessly. The Stratus did wonderful in the CO mountains. The transmission performed well with quick and educated shifts. I also enjoyed doing some manual shifting from Drive to the lower gears. The car was always in control. Gas milage suffered a bit due to the high altitude. The regular gas in CO is 85 octane, however the users manual demands 87, so i bought 87 midgrade throughout the whole trip.

NO E85 flexible fuel, this car is not equipped for it.

Throughout the trip i constantly adjusted the tire pressure through the mountains and deserts. I kept them at a constant hot press. of 35psi. There was an instant where i was in the Utah mountain deserts and the pressure rose to a dangerous 48psi! I quickly lowered it to 35, despite my one roommate's ignorant quips not to.
The car's air conditioning did wonderful driving through the hot deserts where the average day temp was 110F. We stayed cool in the car, and so did the engine. Engine temp never went higher than 1/3 on the coolant gague. Very impressive in my book.
Average gas milage the entire trip was around 29mpg. Pretty darn good for a v6 filled with 3 21 yr. old guys and their stuff. Our average hwy speed was cruised at 75.

After the trip from CA, i changed the oil again and refilled the car with Mobil1 synthetic. To my surprise the oil was still pretty clean looking. Dino oil regularly looked dark and dirty even after 3,000 miles.
I liked the performance of the Mobil1,and will be sticking with that from now on. The engine also idles at 590rpm, where it used to be around 620rpm before the synthetic.

Since my last update, i've purchased Chrysler's MaximumCare extended warranty. This covers the car for a total of 7years/70,000 miles from the inservice date. My car is now fully covered until March 2009. I'm glad i got this because one problem has risen since the trip. The climate control is acting funny. When the fan is on low speed, the air conditioning will randomly switch from dash vents to floor. This is covered under warranty, and when i take the car in next, they will just replace the HVAC unit with a new one for a $100.00 deductible.

Now with 43,000 miles, the car is still running great. It'll get new tires in the spring, and i'll take care of that HVAC glitch. That's all she wrote.



UPDATE (12-9-04)

Going into the second winter for the Stratus ES Sedan. I am currently at 33,500 miles; no problems at all since my original review. Just a few oil changes, new front brake pads, and i still have to rotate the tires. i've noticed this winter that the tires seem to slip a little more than usual as they wear. I dont know if this is because of their composition or if i just need to rotate them.
I have chosen to extend the warranty to Chrysler's Maximum Care plan which covers me for 7 years/70K miles, bumper to bumper, plus roadhazard and protection if i'm stranded with 1,000 dollars compensation for lodging.
One thing i will do different is the next time i need new tires, i will not get the Eagle LS tires. They are excellent tires for dry performance, however i'm not sure about their wet performance. Living in Chicagoland, i'm going to need tires that handle rain and snow better.


ORIGINAL REVIEW

This car, first off, drives beautifully. I drove it in the snow for the first time last week. it was 20 degrees out, and the 2.7 v6 started up right away. there was some slight vibration, probably from the frozen engine mounts, but after a couple minutes it ran like butter. it idles at 1100 for a minute or two, then drops to 900, then to 700. i keep the heater off cuz it's still cold, but i kick on the rear defroster. the window's clear before i depart. i'm able to clean the front windshield with just the wipers and washer fluid. i put it into reverse, pull out, then shift to drive. i get onto the street and the first shift cycle is stiff. about a mile down the road i turn on the heater and it's piping hot, all windows are clear, and the car is shifting like butter. i have no ABS brakes, however i can still brake quite powerfully before the wheels lock up in the snow, thanks to the good Eagle LS tires. i was able to make the car slip a little in the ice, but was still in control and corrected my steering effortlessly. i've had this car since may of 2003, and have never experienced a single NVH, except during the first minute at idle. the car is surprisingly quiet too, and only has loud roadnoise when the rear seats are folded down.

DRIVING - COMFORT

the car is equipped with cloth seats and lumbar support and power driver seat. i can instantly find a comfortable driving position. the seats are firm, yet not at all painful for roadtrips. the wings on the seats keep you in place during invasive manuvers. ;) the back seat has excellent room for 2 adults or 3 kids. the rear also has 2 heater ducts (active during heat only) for the rear passengers on the floor. the car has low windnoise, virtually no roadnoise unless i drive over gravel, potholes, rough terrain etc. driving at 80+mph and there are no vibrations. windnoise is present, but not annoying. above 70, crosswinds do effect the car, but are not dangerous, and are easy to overcome.

PERFORMANCE

equipped with the 200HP v6, i feel this car has plenty of power to do what it was built to do. it is not a sportscar by any means, but i'd feel comfortable calling it a "sporty" sedan. when pushed, the stratus is extremely quick on its feet. the 41TE trans. stops being smooth and gets down right aggressive with shifting when pushed. on rainy days, when punched, the 2-1 downshift will actually make the wheels squeal for a fraction. the 2.7 lacks some low end torque, so must be pushed up to 3000 or more for good, rapid acceleration.
the suspension is excellent as well. it's stiff enough to give good handling, yet absorbs bad road imperfections without being sloppy. the front and rear stabilizer bars aid you in making 40mph 90 degree turns without any protest from the car.
though lacking ABS, the brakes are powerful, and sometimes abrupt if you dont modulate them properly. if you are not carefull, you can lock them up under very extreme braking. however, they are so effective, you should never need to brake that hard. brake fade, i have not experienced yet, even during aggressive driving in 90 degree heat. under the fron facia are air ducts that direct wind right to the rotors, and keeps them cool. the drivetrain gives good engine braking when coming to a stop. however, for more engine braking, like when driving 40 mph or less in rush-hour traffic, it's a good idea to use gear 3 for max engine braking.
gas milage is very good for this 6 cylinder. i usually get 20 in the city and up to 35 on the highway driving 60mph. driving 70 or more, the milage drops to 22-24mpg.

RELIABILITY

since may, this car has been an extremely reliable, well built car. there are no vibrations or rattles inside. everything does what it should. the fake wood, in my opinion, looks good. leather steeringwheel and shifter. all i've done is changed oil on it, and rotate tires.
since aquiring the car, i have had just one warantee repair. the trans. cooler lines cracked and leaked. so those were fixed for free with an updated design. other than that, the car has been trouble free.

OPTIONS

my stratus is an ES model which came with the compass and trip computer. leather steering wheel and shifter. power driver seat. power everything. 120watt Chrysler PremiumGold stereo system.
the sound system is by far, the best factory stereo system i have ever heard. it even rival's Chrysler's systems that Infinity makes. it has 6 speakers with a 120 watt amplifier under the passenger seat. there are 2 6x9s in the rear, 26x9s in the front doors and 2" tweeters in the dash. each of the four channels is individually equalized by chrysler for the interior of the stratus with 4 band analog equalization. the head unit comes with stereo/cd player with changer controls. system frequency response is 35hz - 18khz.
the rear speakers are specially amplified to make use of the trunk as a bass box. therefore, this car has amazing bass output. distortion does not become noticable until your ears start to hurt. you'll probably never listen to it that loud, so distortion should'nt be a problem.

ADDITIONS

some customizing i've done to the car is as follows:

- chrome MOPAR valve stem caps
- silver mopar vinyl logo on rear window
- MOPAR Mashershield undercoating applied


In summary. this is an excellent car for families, or the single person who wants a comfortable sedan that is able to go quite fast and have good handling. it is a reliable car with excellent options and sound system. the powertrain is very good, and does not seem to have any of the problems former chrysler powertrains did in the early 90s.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS CAR TO:

- families with little kids
- single persons
- college students
Amount Paid (US$): 12,500
Condition: Used
Model Year: 2002
Model and Options: Dodge Stratus ES Sedan